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Malachi Dip
Malachi Dip was the founder of Renewalism, an ideology centered on self reliance and abandonment of pre-War ideas (such as capitalism) and technology (such as most firearms, medicine, etc.). A prolific author and philosopher, Malachi however suffered in obscurity as no one wanted to distribute his books in his hometown of Shady Sands. Eventually, he moved to the Boneyard in 2199 to try again, only to develop a chem addiction and become chronically homeless and poor. For the next forty years, he began a slow spiral into insanity, distributing his books on Renewalism and self-reliance to any who would take them. He died in 2242, unknown and unloved, but was discovered and popularized more than twenty years later by some people who took his words to heart. Biography Origins Malachi Dip was born to Sarah and Chang Dip on January 1, 2163 in Shady Sands. This was almost a year after the Vault Dweller aided Shady Sands in fending off the Khans, a still turbulent time in the town's history. Malachi was kept safe though, growing up in a comfortable home and making many friends in his childhood and teenage years for his crass humor and intellect. He liked his town and the people there. However, as Malachi grew up and became older, he became more uncertain of his town's ideals. The townspeople became less of a family and more just cogs in the wheel that would become the New California Republic. The culmination of this dissatisfaction came after Malachi turned twenty-four in 2187. He had become a farmer under his father then, but this did not satisfy Malachi. He felt a calling to write. This began the rift between Malachi and his family, which would only grow in later years. In 2190, after the official creation of the NCR, Malachi started his first book, Our Forefather's Mistakes, which was finished that same year. In it, he criticized the system of governance NCR had established and compared it to what information he knew about "pre-War states." This first book was riddled with errors and contradictions throughout and devoid of any wit, but it was just the beginning of Malachi's writing career. Our Forefather's Mistakes, unlike the rest of Malachi's books, never was printed in any form and the few copies were all handwritten by Malachi himself. This makes its original copies the rarest of his books. After writing his first book, Malachi tried to distribute it to others in town to try to sway their opinions about this new "NCR." This, predictably, failed miserably and his father burned several copies of the book to try to make Malachi "snap out of it." This made Malachi angry and a bit depressed. His smoking began after the book burning, 2193. Malachi would smoke for the rest of his life, and lung cancer would be one of the causes of his eventual death. During this "Dark Period" (2193-2199) Malachi wrote and printed three more books, all in paperback and with the help of a kindly, lonely old publisher. These books, Earth's Bounty, The Ghost of Industry, and Man & Machine, would form the foundation of the Renewalism ideology with the rejection of pre-War ideas and tech in favor of new inventions and ideas for government, namely Malachi's idea of a commune based one. During this time, Malachi had increasingly become a shut-in, rarely emerging from his parents' house when writing. This worried his father Chang greatly. In 2198, Malachi's parents and siblings confronted him and told him that he had a problem. Malachi took this offense to heart and decided that his family and Shady Sands were not good environments anymore. It took him a year to plan and get together, but in 2199, Malachi left town in the dead of night with a shopping cart full of books, supplies, and a radio. He wandered around for a little and was unable to write, but Malachi finally decided to go to the Boneyard in late 2199, hoping for a more open environment to his ideas of abandonment of pre-War things. The Boneyard The "Golden Period" (2199-2204) began when Malachi arrived in the Boneyard initially and began to write again. Taking up residence in a shack downtown, Malachi was surrounded by thousands of other people and new ideas. Here, Malachi distributed his paperback books and pamplets to hundreds of people. Early in his stay at the Boneyard, Malachi's works spread around while he wrote Hail of Fire, a historical fiction novel on life "before the war." This was Malachi's only fictional work. After a brief burst of creativity in 2199 and 2200, Malachi slowed down to write his magnum opus: A Need for Renewal. It took him four years but was his longest and most in-depth work. Malachi intended to sell A Need for Renewal so he could make some actual money, but that failed miserably. Malachi lost almost all his caps and was unable to obtain any material for new books. This began his long spiral into depression and insanity. The "Boneyard Period" (2204-2242) was Malachi's story of decline and fall. After his failure to market A Need for Renewal and pay back some loans, Malachi was evicted from his shack with only the clothes on his back and a shopping cart full of his books and pamphlets. For the next four decades or so, Malachi Dip lived on the streets of the Boneyard, growing more desperate and more crazy. Fewer and fewer people were taking his books while Malachi's life was getting harder. He wrote only one thing in this time, The Lunch of Gods, a writing that reflected his declining mental state. 2220 was the agreed upon year that Malachi snapped. He pushed aside his shopping cart of books and pamphlets and simply became another ranter on the street, spewing out his invented ideology. This only added to his insanity, and Malachi stayed this way for twenty more years, along with gaining a chem addiction and sustaining his smoking addiction. In 2241, when news of the Enclave's plans came from the north, this made Malachi even more enraged at the world. This made him more reliant on chems in turn. He died on the streets of the Boneyard in 2242 at the ripe old age of seventy-nine with only a few caps to his name. The causes were a combination of lung cancer, chem overdose, and old age. Legacy When Malachi Dip died, no noticed and one cared. His parents and siblings were all already dead. However, his books and pamphlets, by that time, were already widespread in the Boneyard but not widely read. This changed in 2265 when the young people of the Boneyard, now under the rule of NCR, began to read Malachi's literature. He gained quite a level of popularity with students and Followers of the Apocalypse, who related Malachi's rage against pre-War values and technology to their struggles with the NCR. This is what spawned "Renewalism", named after Malachi's most well known book, A Need for Renewal. Renewalism gained traction in the Boneyard in the 2260s, with several young Renewalists running for public office. This effort to spread Renewalism in the Boneyard was ultimately a failure and the young Renewalists decided their message could be best spread elsewhere. So, a hundred or so Renewalists spread out to the frontiers of NCR territory, namely Nevada, Oregon, and Baja California, and created commune-like compounds to put Renewalism in practice. Others have spread Renewalism even further. Results have varied. Personality Malachi Dip had an extremely crass and hostile personality and had trouble with authority and maintaining relationships. Because of this apparent lack of social skills and his occasional fits, Malachi was often perceived as just another angry bum. However, he was more intelligent and introspective than most people thought, writing several books and creating the Renewalism ideology all himself. Appearance Malachi Dip never maintained his image and always appeared dirty or unkempt. He was a bearded biracial (Asian/White) man, which Malachi often used to say he was a Shi. He most commonly wore wastelander's rags and shades, even at night. Equipment During his time, Malachi Dip carried very little equipment besides his books and clothes. Later in life though, Malachi used a pool cue as a weapon against muggers in the Boneyard. Collected Works ''Our Forefather's Mistakes'' Malachi's first written work, Our Forefather's Mistakes was pamphlet-sized and written as a criticism of the early New California Republic. It pointed fingers at the NCR's adoption of obselete pre-War values and customs. This book is Malachi's shortest and least thought out, as seen in the title which should be spelled Our Forefathers' Mistakes. However, it is Malachi's only work to directly address the NCR, allowing it to retain popularity with many Renewalists and young Followers of the Apocalypse. ''Earth's Bounty'' Earth's Bounty was originally written as another pamphlet but eventually ballooned into Malachi's first book. It spends most of its time marveling at the wonders of nature and a hope of a future with man working alongside it in commune-like settlements. The book feels very unfocused and meandering and is generally regarded as Malachi's worst book. ''The Ghost of Industry'' Malachi's second book, The Ghosts of Industry is regarded as the second most important book in Renewalist ideology, right after A Need for Renewal. The books mostly talks about the negative effects of pre-War technology on the wasteland such as radiation and how people's reliance on it stagnated any real growth. Even many non-Renewalists agree with this point. The book however offered no real answers to these statements yet, only providing vague condemnations. The Ghosts of Industry was Malachi's most distributed book in the Boneyard and is his most surviving book. ''Man & Machine'' A pamphlet written after The Ghosts of Industry, Man & Machine mostly repeated the previous books condemnations of pre-War technology while adding robots to the mix. It is out of print and is among of Malachi's rarer works. ''Hail of Fire'' Malachi Dip wrote only one fiction book, and Hail of Fire was that book. Set in 2077 from just before the bombs fell to a year afterwards, Hail of Fire is a tragedy following a blue collar office worker named Carl whose reliance on computers and technology left him vulnerable to the effects of the Great War and ultimately led to him being mutated, enslaved, and killed. However, Carl sacrifices himself in the end to save another slave and her family, which some take as Malachi subverting his own values. ''A Need for Renewal'' A Need for Renewal is widely regarded as Malachi's magnum opus and the cornerstone of Renewalism. Written by Malachi as followup to The Ghost of Industry, A Need for Renewal addresses the unanswered questions of the prievious book, saying that to advance humanity must enter into an age of "renewal." This included new inventions, the abandonment of pre-War technology, and commune life. Critics often call out A Need for Renewal for "its blatant communism and luddite attitude." The validity of these arguments are hotly debated as Renewalists hold the book to an almost religious degree. ''The Lunch of the Gods'' The Lunch of the Gods was Malachi's last pamphlet. It is an odd one, as it made extensive use of extended metaphors and cursing to intentionally confuse the reader from a democratic point of view. Some believe it to be part of Renewalist ideology but most do not, seeing it as Malachi's last ramblings before really going crazy. Quotes By About Category:New California Republic Category:Deceased